TUG'S FINAL DAYS WITH TIM

In the current issue of Reader's Digest, Tim McGraw reveals how he spent every last moment he could with his dying father, the late baseball great Tug McGraw, who lost his battle with brain cancer earlier this year. In Tug's final days, Tim sometimes held his father's hand for 12 hours at a time, even though Tug was often unconscious. "It would be two or three in the morning, and Tim still wouldn't leave him," says Jennifer Brusstar, who'd helped care for Tug. Jennifer adds that when she'd look in Tug's room, she'd find Tim "in a curled position next to Tug, just like a five-year-old boy crawling up into his daddy's lap not wanting to let go." After grieving for two weeks at home, Tim headed into the studio to record "Live Like You Were Dying," the title track of his current CD. Tim says, "We all looked at each other and said, 'Let's try it.' And everybody in the room felt it. There was magic on every note."